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Less annoying desoldering wick

Doesn't suck the solder off of the iron tip
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One of the most common desoldering methods is to use a desoldering wick/braid (a flux-coated, loosely braided copper rope) in conjunction with a soldering iron: [link]

One annoying aspect of that method is that the wick, which is designed to suck up solder from the joint being desoldered, sucks solder off the soldering iron's tip. That molten solder on the tip is good to have there, because it protects the tip from oxidization and it ensures good thermal contact with the work. Also, that solder being sucked up by the wick uses up some of the wick's capacity. For me, all this usually results in attempting to desolder using a saturated wick and a dry tip, which in turn results in me using the solder sucker instead of the wick.

The solution I've thought of is to make a wick that's covered on one side by aluminium foil. It would look like a regular wick on one side (against the joint to be desoldered), and a foil- shielded cable with its outer jacket removed on the other side (against the soldering iron). The foil could be held on by sewing its edges to the copper braid with more fine copper wire.

Aluminium is nearly as thermally conductive as copper, so heat transfer through the whole wick should be almost as good. As well, aluminium isn't wettable by common electronics solders, so the solder on the iron tip should stay there, improving the thermal contact, and keeping the whole braided copper section of the wick available to suck solder from the work. I expect all of this would result in much easier desoldering.

N/A [2019-01-04]

notexactly, Jan 05 2019

Video showing desoldering using solder wick https://www.youtube...watch?v=htrcZuK_ZsY
Mentioned in idea body [notexactly, Jan 05 2019]


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